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Is It Okay to Punch a Neo-Nazi?

NEO-NAZIS AND WHITE SUPREMACISTS are marching again. Counterprotesters are opposing and disrupting. Where do Christians stand? In April, Sojourners senior associate editor Rose Marie Berger launched this question on social media: Is it okay for a Christian to punch a Nazi? A lively conversation followed, eventually generating nearly 100 replies—and about as many different understandings (and misunderstandings) of Christian nonviolence. Excerpts from the conversation below are edited and used with permission. —The Editors

Rose: Is it okay for a Christian to punch a Nazi? Discuss.

Maureen: Last time I checked it is not okay to punch anyone, no matter who you are. Right?

Nate: Yes. Pacifism doesn’t work against genocide. You have to have an opponent who can feel shame. Nazis call for the extinction of my people and have proven they are willing to try and carry that out.

Rose: Is pacifism the same as organized unarmed resistance?

Nate: In my head it has the same results against Nazis. Nazis are my only punching exception.

Larry: Ask Dietrich Bonhoeffer ...

Nate: Show me where Bonhoeffer succeeded in stopping the Nazis. I’ll wait.

Larry: He didn’t, but he didn’t resist passively.

Korla: Choosing to accept death for yourself is substantially different from choosing to accept it for other people, particularly from a position where you’re incredibly low on the list of targets. That’s cowardly and colonial.

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